


Chill, For Real, Or-

by BlueGirl22



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Angst, Gen, I'm Sorry, my brain was like 'so what if people Died', so I was listening to blackout and
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-12 20:29:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12967797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueGirl22/pseuds/BlueGirl22
Summary: Vanessa is jammed between an unstoppable force (a seething crowd) and an immovable object (a set of locked doors). Usnavi is alone in the streets of New York during a riot. In the words of a great man, "Oh no!"





	Chill, For Real, Or-

**Author's Note:**

> tw for like, death :""))))

_ This is just fucking typical, isn’t it. _

Vanessa was stuck in the front of a crowd of people pushing toward the double doors.  _ Oh yes, Vanessa, that was  _ real  _ smart of you. “I’ll get to the doors first! Be the first one out!” What a great fucking idea, Vanessa _ . Of course, it had only taken her a minute after the crowd formed to figure out what had happened. She had heard rumours a few weeks ago that the club owners had started blocking the doors so that people couldn’t sneak in, but she had dismissed it at the time.  _ Oh noooo, I’ll never be in an emergency that requires immediate exit through said locked doors, never in a mIlLiOn YeArS! _

She was burying her simmering panic deep in her subconscious, covered safely by sarcasm. She saw Nina dart away to a back room earlier, probably to escape via a door known only to Nina. She had also heard Benny shout for someone at the front to open the doors from somewhere in the crowd ( _ Wow thanks for the advice, Benjamin! I didn’t think of that! _ ). That left Usnavi. She thought she heard him yelling something to her when the lights went off, but that could have just been her imagination.

She took a deep breath to try and compose hersel-  _ What’s that smell? _ She heard a scream from somewhere in the back.

“ _ ¡Incendio! ¡Todos salgan! _ ”

_ Fire! Everybody out! _ As soon as the cry rang out, Vanessa felt herself pushed up against the doors. The breath she just took was squeezed right out of her lungs, and she almost couldn’t hear anything over the shouting of the people behind her. Almost. Very faintly, she heard the crackle of an inferno at the back of the dancefloor.

* * *

 

Usnavi slunk slowly down the street, one hand pressed to the chilled bricks of the building beside him. He had to get to Abuela. A woman her age alone in a blackout in this heat, who knew what could happen? He had been going in roughly the right direction after he left the club, but he’d let his thoughts wander and before he knew it he had completely lost track of where the hell he was. The occasional firework helped him not walk directly into walls, but in general his anxiety was making this Interesting. 

_ What if I don’t get there fast enough and something’s already happened to Abuela by the time I find her and I left Vanessa how do I know she’s alright what if she didn’t even make it out of the club and oh god who knows what could happen to Benny he wasn’t in the best state and he made a lot of people angry before the lights went out and Nina hasn’t seemed right all day and she’s like my little sister and I don’t know what I would do if and then there’s Sonny and knowing him he’ll have gone out to try and help people but he gets scared so easily- _

He heard the sound of glass shattering from somewhere down the street behind him, and without thinking, whipped his head around to see what it was. Conveniently, a firework let off a burst of light just in time for him to make eye contact with a burly looking man holding a baseball bat about half-a-dozen yards away. The light fizzled out, and Usnavi remained motionless. The night air was perfectly still. He could hear the ticking of his cheap watch.

After a minute of not moving, he let out a sigh. _ Okay Usnavi, calm down. He probably couldn’t care less about you seeing him for half a second. Keep going, you’re wasting time. Wait- what was that?  _ He could have sworn he just heard a footstep. A tiny firework shed faint yellow light, and the baseball bat man was now less than three feet away. Usnavi’s brain shut down in fear for half a second, then he turned and ran, immediately followed by the other man.

* * *

 

Vanessa pressed her nose against the crack in the doors, trying to get a little air. The room had rapidly filled with smoke after the first warnings of fire, and the pressure behind her had only grown. Any more of this, and she was fairly certain a bone would break. On the brightside, it was physically impossible for her to fall and get trampled, because, y’know, there was no space around her to fall into. 

Oddly enough, the heat of the night air, the heat of the fire, and the heat of the people pressed into her really just made her sleepy. There weren’t really other options of activities at that moment. It was strange, she had always imagined that a violent death would be a lot more panic inducing, but all of her cares were just ebbing away. It was probably something to do with blood having a hard time getting around her body and the general lack of oxygen, but she felt calm.

All of the screaming and shoving and shouting and slapping seemed so apart from her now, like it was getting farther and farther away. She closed her eyes and felt the lines of reality getting fuzzier and fuzzier. The only sound that still seemed real was the dull thud of her heart still straining to do its job.

_ Ba thum. _

_ Ba thum. _

_ Ba thum. _

  
  


_ Ba thum. _

  
  
  


_ Ba _

  
  


 

 

_ Click. _

Vanessa’s eyes flew open at the strange sound from the other side of the door.  _ What-wait, was tha _ \- The doors flew open, she fell forward, and felt herself caught by someone’s strong arms. She gulped in air faster than the time she almost drowned when she was eight. The person holding her shuffled them to the side so they wouldn’t be caught in the continuous stream of people flooding out from the club.

Dopily, Vanessa slung an arm around her saviour’s shoulders and managed to stand at her full height. She leaned her face in close and slurred, “Oh my God, thank you, I don’t know what I would have-”

“Nope. No, no, no. Wrong person.”

Vanessa felt her face being gently pushed away and managed to focus her vision on the other’s face. She covered her mouth and laughed a little. “Shit, sorry Nina, I thought you were Usnavi!”

Nina nodded. “I could tell, it’s okay. Have you seen Benny? I lost track of everyone when I slipped out through the back door. And sorry it took me so long to get those ones open, lockpicking always looks so easy in movie, I broke three hair pins before I got it.”

“No no, you were just in time. And I think Benny was in the crowd of people somewhere behind me. He must have run out with everyone else. But if it was you and not Usnavi who...” she trailed off and furrowed her brows. She looked into Nina’s eyes. “Where’s Usnavi?”

* * *

 

_ Slapslapslapslapslapslapslap _

One foot after the other, pounding away on the concrete. One two, one two, one two, one two. Usnavi was using all of his concentration to keep from slipping.  _ Why won’t this guy just give up? What are his motivations? _ It’s not like Usnavi posed a great threat to him. What was he, a twenty-three-year-old, anxious, latino, small-business owner going to do? Magically find his way to a police station and say he saw a nondescript not very friendly guy on the street? He raked in a breath, and the thick night air burnt his throat and lungs like acid. He’d never been the most athletic of people, so the other guy really should have overtaken him by now. He felt like he was being toyed with.

A firework shell burst, and he was granted a glimpse of the terrain. He knew this place! There was a little alleyway up ahead, and if he could get there with enough distance between him and his pursuer, he could duck inside a little crevice that Sonny always used to use for hide-and-seek. Usnavi summoned a last burst of energy and poured on the steam, feet bleeding in his nice dance shoes.

_ Yes- yes nearly there! _ He gained distance and mentally counted down to when he should turn.  _ Three…two… now now now now! _ He swerved sideways and into the mouth of the alley and-

The edge of his shoe caught on an askew pavestone.

He went down, head slamming hard onto the ground.

Stars swam in his vision and his ears rang. After the terrible pounding in his head subsided a little and he got his bearings, he realized he only had a precious few moments to hide. Sitting up, Usnavi tried scooting backwards, but it was all too late. A heavy booted foot landed squarely on his leg. A bunch of fireworks started going off at once, and if he had thought about it, he would have figured that this was meant to be their grand finale. But he was more focused on the outline of the hulking, bat-wielding, brick-building of a man standing before him.

The man brought his foot off of Usnavi’s leg and kicked it up under his chin, sprawling him flat on his back and slamming his head into the ground again. Usnavi watched in horror as the man lifted the bat.  _ No, no, it can’t happen like this. Please. It-it- this is  _ it _? I never even left this island I never really told Vanessa how I felt. I don’t even have a will drawn up, Sonny might not even get the store.  _ He felt tears prick his eyes and stared pointedly up at the beautiful fire in the sky while his mind short-circuited.

“ _ Dios te salve María, llena- _ ”

With a dull thud, the prayer was cut short.

* * *

 

Benny found him early the next morning. 

Vanessa and Nina had eventually met up with him around four a.m. and expressed concern for Usnavi’s whereabouts. Nina said she would go out and look, but Vanessa needed to lie down and going back to her mother’s apartment was probably the last thing she needed right then.

So Benny had gone out as the sun’s first rays tickled the ground, searching high and low for any signs of his friend. He almost missed the end of the shoe poking out from an alley. Now he stood, staring at the prone figure, tears streaming down his face, hardly able to breathe, wondering what the hell he was going to do. Should he go back the bodega and tell people? Should he call the police? He had no idea.

_ Come on Benny, get it together _ . He drew in a breath and looked at the blood-spattered face.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t look for you sooner. I-I- I’ll try and look after the barrio like you did. This’ll hurt Vanessa, Sonny, and Abuela most, but it’ll get to everyone. I’ll try and make sure everyone can move on.”

There was silence for a moment, and Benny imagined a miracle occurring. Like suddenly his friend would start breathing again, or he’d see his hand twitch, or he’d suddenly bolt into an upright position and ask where there was blood all over his shirt. But, of course, no such thing happened. Benny pulled out his phone and dialed emergency services, dreading the fallout when everyone learned of this tragedy.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr @biseuxal-evanhansen


End file.
